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North Korea leader promises look at new weapon soon North Korea’s Kim threatens to resume nuclear, long-range missile tests
(about 2 hours later)
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has accused the Trump administration of dragging its feet in nuclear negotiations and warned that his country will soon show a new strategic weapon to the world as its bolsters its nuclear deterrent in face of “gangster-like” U.S. sanctions and pressure. SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country no longer felt bound by a self-imposed moratorium on testing nuclear weapons and long-range missiles, and warned the world would soon see a “new strategic weapon” as the country continued to bolster its nuclear deterrent.
The North’s state media said Wednesday that Kim made the comments during a four-day ruling party conference held through Tuesday in the capital Pyongyang, where he declared that the North will never give up its security for economic benefits in the face of what he described as increasing U.S. hostility and nuclear threats. In remarks delivered Tuesday at a key meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party and carried by state media Wednesday, Kim complained that the United States had responded to the moratorium by continuing to conduct military drills with South Korea, breaking a promise given by President Trump.
Kim’s comments came after a monthslong standoff between Washington and Pyongyang over disagreements involving disarmament steps and the removal of sanctions imposed on the North. It had also shipped advanced military equipment to South Korea and imposed new sanctions on the North, he said, complaining of a “hostile” policy and “gangster-like acts.”
“He said that we will never allow the impudent U.S. to abuse the DPRK-U.S. dialogue for meeting its sordid aim but will shift to a shocking actual action to make it pay for the pains sustained by our people so far and for the development so far restrained,” the Korean Central News Agency said, referring to the North by its formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “He stressed that under such condition, there is no ground for us to get unilaterally bound to the commitment any longer, the commitment to which there is no opposite party, and this is chilling our efforts for worldwide nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation,” the Korean Central News Agency reported.
Kim added that “if the U.S. persists in its hostile policy toward the DPRK, there will never be the denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and the DPRK will steadily develop necessary and prerequisite strategic weapons for the security of the state until the U.S. rolls back its hostile policy,” according to the agency. Kim had warned that he would put his country on a “new path” if the United States failed to drop what Pyongyang calls a hostile attitude and make fresh concessions by the end of 2019, threatening to deliver an unwelcome “Christmas gift” to the United States. While Christmas came and went without any missile tests, this week’s statement shows Kim moving in a more aggressive direction.
However, Kim showed no clear indication of abandoning negotiations with the United States entirely or restarting tests of nuclear bombs and intercontinental ballistic missiles he had suspended under a self-imposed moratorium in 2018. In his speech, he warned that the country would unveil a “new strategic weapon” in the near future, which experts saw as a possible sign that he might test a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
He did issue a warning that there would be no grounds for the North to get “unilaterally bound” to the moratorium any longer, criticizing the United States for continuing its joint military exercises with rival South Korea and also providing the South with advanced weaponry. North Korea has not tested nuclear arms or long-range missiles in more than two years, since declaring its nuclear deterrent to be complete. But as relations with the United States nose-dived last year, it carried out more than a dozen tests of short-range ballistic missiles and rockets.
“In the past two years alone when the DPRK took preemptive and crucial measures of halting its nuclear test and ICBM test-fire and shutting down the nuclear-test ground for building confidence between the DPRK and the U.S., the U.S., far from responding to the former with appropriate measures, conducted tens of big and small joint military drills which its president personally promised to stop and threatened the former militarily through the shipment of ultra-modern warfare equipment into (South Korea),” the KCNA quoted Kim as saying. “North Korea has, in effect, put an ICBM to Donald Trump’s head in order to gain the two concessions it wants most: sanctions relief and some sort of security guarantee,” said Harry Kazianis, a senior director of Korean Studies at the Center for the National Interest. “Kim Jong Un is playing a dangerous game of geopolitical chicken.”
Some experts say North Korea, which has always been sensitive about electoral changes in U.S. government, will avoid engaging in serious negotiations for a deal with Washington in coming months as it watches how Trump’s impending impeachment trial over his dealings with Ukraine affects U.S. presidential elections in November. Kazianis predicted any ICBM test would backfire on North Korea, forcing Washington to respond, probably with more sanctions, an increased military presence in East Asia and more “fire and fury”-style threats from Trump’s Twitter account, leading to a dangerous escalation in tension.
Kim and President Donald Trump have met three times since June 2018, but negotiations have faltered since the collapse of their second summit last February in Vietnam, where the Americans rejected North Korean demands for broad sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities. Kim also pledged to “put on constant alert the powerful nuclear deterrent capable of containing the nuclear threats from the U.S.”
Kim’s speech followed months of intensified testing activity and belligerent statements issued by various North Korean officials, raising concerns that he was reverting to confrontation and preparing to do something provocative if Washington doesn’t back down and relieve sanctions. But at the same time, he left open a small window for compromise, by adding that the “scope and depth of bolstering our deterrent” would depend on “the U.S. future attitude.”
The North announced in December that it performed two “crucial” tests at its long-range rocket launch site that would further strengthen its nuclear deterrent, prompting speculation that it was developing an ICBM or planning a satellite launch that would provide an opportunity to advance its missile technologies. Kim’s comments came at a rare four-day meeting of the ruling party’s policymaking committee. He stressed North Korea’s commitment to develop its economy but said Pyongyang would not succumb to sanctions pressure from the United States.
North Korea also last year ended a 17-month pause in ballistic activity by testing a slew of solid-fuel weapons that potentially expanded its capabilities to strike targets in South Korea and Japan, including U.S. military bases there. It also threatened to lift a self-imposed moratorium on the testing of nuclear bombs and ICBMs. “It is true that we urgently need external environment favorable for the economic construction but we can never sell our dignity which we have so far defended as valuable as our own life, in hope for brilliant transformation,” Kim was quoted as saying.
Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Kim said North Korea would not allow the United States to “abuse the DPRK-U.S. dialogue for meeting its sordid aim” and threatened to “shift to a shocking actual action.” DPRK stands for North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Kim has met Trump three times since June 2018, but nuclear negotiations have failed to yield substantive progress, and the rhetoric between the two sides has become much chillier. Adam Mount, a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, said the United States and South Korea should still stick to the path of dialogue.
“So far, the Trump administration has been ‘fire and fury’ or ‘we fell in love.’ Both exacerbate a bad situation. The imperative is to find a responsible option in the vast space between,” he said.
“The United States still has considerable leverage to shape North Korea’s arsenal, but it will require a far more patient and flexible approach than any president has been willing to demonstrate.”
Denyer reported from Tokyo.
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